The unique initiative to shut down the FM network in Norway not the success story expected .
In 2017, Norway's nationwide FM network was shut down and replaced with digital terrestrial radio DAB+. This after a decade of debate that was characterized by a compact resistance both in public opinion and in the editorial and readers’ pages of the daily press. Today, Norway is still the only country in the world to have shut down its national FM network. Switzerland was supposed to be the second country to do the same, but its government recently changed its plans to shut down FM at the end of this year. The public broadcaster SRF, which shut down its FM network a year ago and thereby lost many listeners, has now announced plans to restart FM in 2026.
The fiasco in Switzerland has received a lot of attention in other countries that have DAB radio on their agenda. Considering how Norway up until 2017 was beating the drum for its DAB initiative both at home and abroad, it is remarkable with the total silence today. Why? Read more about this here:
Not any Norwegian daily newspaper or news site of importance has mentioned one word in 2025 about what happened in Switzerland, where there has been a heated debate about plans to close FM for several years. There are no indexed open articles in 2025 in the major Norwegian newsrooms (Aftenposten, NRK, VG, Dagbladet, TV2, E24) that specifically deal with the development of FM and DAB in Switzerland.
It should be noted here that the public broadcaster NRK was one of the strongest actors behind the DAB project. Together with the two foreign-owned commercial companies Bauer and Viaplay, they managed, together with a well-known PR agency and the lobby organization WorldDAB, to convince politicians that “digital radio” was needed even though digital radio was already established on the Internet. The politicians were also told outright lies that FM radio would be closed all of the world in a couple of years and DAB would be the replacement. They also refused to listen to their neighbors; Sweden and Finland rejected DAB+ as a replacement for FM.
Abroad, Norway boasted about its unique investment in DAB. However, it became somewhat embarrassing for the government when its ambassador in Washington exclaimed in 2017: The USA was the first country to put a man on the moon. Now Norway will be the first country to switch off the FM network in order to use only DAB radio. That is one small step for a country. And one giant leap for humanity.
The only known news source in Norway that paid attention to the events in Switzerland in 2025 was the industry magazine Radionytt.no. Not only is there Norwegian media silence about radio in Switzerland, there is virtually no mention of the DAB radio developments despite the system continuing to have weak international market position since its establishment in 1995. No other countries have shown any interest in following the Norwegian example of shutting down their FM radio.
Today, nobody knows how many people actually listen to DAB+ in Norway, because in listener surveys, DAB+ and the Internet have been cleverly labeled combined into “digital listening”. The DAB initiative did not provide any boost to the radio industry either; radio listening continues to decline and social media is expressing dissatisfaction with poor reception, especially on car radios (drop-outs). Nor have any new players established themselves apart from NRK, and the commercial radio oligopoly with its two foreign media groups continues without any challenger as before.
The silence in Norway cannot be interpreted in any other way than that it is ashamed of its “world-leading” initiative that forced a population that was never asked to scrap their FM receivers and get DAB in order to listen to the national radio channels. That NRK is now choosing to remain silent about the matter is understandable, but hardly compatible with the mission of an objective public broadcaster to cover the news.
How will Norwegian taxpayers and radio listeners react if they discover that they have been deceived? Did 13 out of 14 culture ministers understand on whose behalf their decisions were made? As long as Norwegian media avoids confronting politicians, NRK and lobbyists, we are unlikely to get an answer to that question. However, researchers in the media and political science field might discover some interesting potholes on the dauntless democratic roadway.
Read more:
Another DAB Setback - Switzerland Reverses Decision to Close FM Radio
FM Radio Switch-Off Delayed for Another Decade In Belgium
FM Radio Winner In Public Service Consultation
Why DAB Radio in Norway, But Not in Sweden?
Final Stop For DAB Radio in Sweden
DAB and FM Radio Press Opinion in Norway 2010-2025 (in Norwegian)